


Flatline

by DragonSilk



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: F/M, Murder, Police Procedural, Reader-Insert, Serial Killers, Slow Romance, Suspense, Thriller
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-06 01:34:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10322489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSilk/pseuds/DragonSilk
Summary: There's a dead body on the front doorstep of Seto Kaiba's home, and it's your job to figure out who killed the man. A job that is made more difficult when all your questions lead you back to Kaiba. Seto Kaiba is difficult enough when he actually wants to work with you. When he doesn't want to cooperate, he's downright impossible.You can only hope that Kaiba's pride won't cause more bloodshed.Seto Kaiba/Reader





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> DON'T KILL ME! D: 
> 
> This isn't really new, ok. It's a story that's been up on Luna for a while, and because I didn't have too many chapters for it and wasn't actively working on it, I never got around to bringing it over here. Then Luna went down and I lost a bunch of stuff and really I should crosspost things so people can read them if they want. 
> 
> So this is getting brought over. 
> 
> I also have another story that's not posted on here, and on Luna it's actually under another name altogether. (Don't ask why I created an account just to post one story. It's a long tale and mostly not important.) If I bring it over, I figure I might as well take ownership of it. Should I also post that one too? 
> 
> Enjoy?

The body was doubled over on the front steps of the mansion. The legs were pinned underneath the torso, and the man’s arms were stretched out in front of him. His head had turned to the side at some point, revealing a glassy stare, but his palms were firmly attached to the ground by an adhesive of some sort. Your team already had more than enough pictures of the body, but you weren’t ready to let the examiner move him just yet. 

His prostrate position was a clue. The body had been pinned and glued down so it couldn’t move. That meant that the killer wanted to send a message with it. One idea came to mind right away, but you couldn’t make assumptions. There could be hundreds of possible meanings to the body’s position. So you slowly circled the body, carefully avoiding the blood, and committed every single aspect to memory. 

The hands were glued down, but the face wasn’t. You suspected that the legs were glued down, too, but you wouldn’t be able to confirm that guess until the body was moved. The glue would have to be sent in for testing, but it was probably some standard glue that anyone could buy at a craft store. You hoped it might be something specific, but experience told you that you weren’t ever that lucky.

His neck had been sliced open. Since his head had fallen to the side, you could see part of the cut without touching the body. The slice looked long and deep. You wouldn’t be surprised if it went through a major artery and possibly the windpipe. 

The lack of blood around the body said otherwise. 

A hand landed on your shoulder, dragging you out of your thoughts. Your face snapped to the side as you tensed, ready to launch an attack if necessary. It was one of your team members, and you smothered that urge. “Yes?” 

“Examiner wants to know if he can move the body yet.”

You looked back at the body and sighed. It would be nice to have more time to study it, but you were slowing everyone else down, and you knew it. "Fine."

The man left to find James, the examiner, and you turned your attention to the open door. The man’s blood covered the entire doorstep and some of it had dripped down the stairs leading up to the door, but the doors leading into the mansion were untouched. The door had been left open by whoever discovered the body earlier in the morning. 

You walked over to the doorway and looked inside the massive house. The entryway was clean, and you had no real reason to look inside, so you turned and walked back down the steps.

The amount of blood on the steps bothered you. One of your past murders had been a woman who had been cut open from her left ear to her right shoulder. Her body had been left in her bed and the sheets had dripped with so much blood that there were puddles on the floor. 

The smears of blood on the steps were nothing in comparison. 

You signaled to your partner that you were going to inspect the surrounding area, and he nodded once before going back to his current conversation. 

There were reporters outside the gates, taking pictures of the scene, but you did your best to ignore them as you looked for anything that would indicate that the body had been dragged to the doorway. There wasn’t a blood trail, but you didn’t think that the man had been attacked on the doorstep. Yes, it was possible, but you found it highly unlikely. 

The path leading up from the gates was paved, and you walked along it, looking down at the ground the entire time. Once you were close, the reporters began to yell questions at you, but you continued to pretend they weren’t there. 

Your inspection didn’t turn up anything significant, and you were starting to feel frustrated by the time you ended up back at the body. “Please tell me you heard something noteworthy,” you said as you approached your partner. 

Sebastian just laughed. “We don’t need to figure out who the killer is instantly. That’s why it’s called an investigation.” 

He told you this every single time you couldn’t find as many clues as you wanted, but it never made you relax. So you just snatched his notebook and looked down at it. 

The current page of his notebook contained a drawing of a bird. “Seriously?!” You held up the notebook. “Where are your notes?” 

Seb shook his head, amused, as always, by your temper. He took his notebook and turned to another page before handing it back to you. “The victim worked as a security guard here. He was on duty with another guard last night when the power went out. He drew the short straw and had to walk out to the back-up generator. That’s probably where he was attacked.”

“Well, let’s go check that out then.” You closed the notebook. “Did you ask where it is?” 

Your partner nodded and began walking. You silently followed him as he led you around to the side of the house. The backup generator was next to the house but concealed by bushes. No doubt some landscaper wanted to hide something as “unsightly” as a generator. Paying attention to where you were stepping, you started looking through one of the bushes. It was likely that the killer had attacked the man here. 

Something red caught your attention, and you put on your gloves before picking it up. It was rounded, thin, hollow on the inside, and maybe half as long as your pinkie. It seemed to be a plastic cap of some sort. With your other hand, you dug in your back pocket for a plastic bag, pulled one out, and dropped the red object inside. 

“I found something!” your partner called out. 

You backed out of the bush, still looking at the ground. “I was about to say the same thing!” You held up the bag as you walked over to where Sebastian was standing. He held out his hand, stopping you before you got too close, and pointed down at the ground. 

The area around the generator was cleared of grass, and you could see lines in the dirt indicating that something heavy was dragged through it. “It looks like we have a crime scene.” You handed the bag over to Seb. “I’ll go get them over here to section off the area. I found that over there.” You pointed back to the bush with your thumb. 

He nodded, studying the red plastic through the bag, and you walked back to the body. On the way, you kept an eye out for blood but didn’t find anything. If the man had been killed by the generator, there would have been blood somewhere.

You directed some of the men back to the generator before asking who the mansion belonged to. They were at the top of your list of people who needed to be interviewed.

One of the other detectives had an answer for you. “Seto Kaiba.”

The last name rang a bell. “Does he have anything to do with that Kaiba Land amusement park nearby?” 

“His company owns it. We’ve got someone back at the station looking him up. You should have a packet when you get back.” 

You didn’t want the information later. You wanted it now. It would have helped you talk to the man properly. “Well, where is he?”

“Not here. He apparently left for work without waiting for us to show up.” 

You simply stared at the detective. “He left a crime scene?”

The man nodded, and you ground your teeth. You were going to have to hunt down this Seto Kaiba and ask him about the event. So you pulled out your cellphone and dialed the station. You gave the woman on duty your badge number, and she directed your call to the appropriate person.

“What do you want?” 

“Nice to talk to you, too, Meg.” 

“Whatever. You only call when you want something.”

Well, that would be the point of calling her. She was the one in charge of digging up information on any suspects. You decided not to point that out. It would just irritate her. “I have someone who walked away from a crime scene. The body is at his front door, but he’s gone. Can you help me locate him?” 

“Probably. Name?”

“Seto Kaiba.” 

You heard a sharp intake of breath, and then there was a long silence. 

Eventually, you began to worry. “Meg?” 

“The boss is going to be on your case for this one. Seto Kaiba is… well, he’s powerful. I don’t know exactly where he is, but he’s probably at work. I can give you the address for Kaiba Corp’s American branch?” 

“Sure.” You wrote down the address, and then tried to thank her, but she’d already hung up on you. So you found Seb, explained the situation to him, and took the keys to the car. Sebastian could catch a ride back to the station with one of the other detectives. 

You felt like speaking to Seto Kaiba would help the case more than inspecting the area. It was his front yard; he had to have some ideas about the body. 

The building that your map led you to was enforced by a large amount of security, and you wondered if this was normal. The building probably had security, but as you walked through the entrance, you noted that there were a lot of men on duty.

You flashed your badge at one of the guards and demanded that he show you to Seto Kaiba. He couldn’t brush you off or ignore you, but it was obvious that he didn’t want to take you to his boss. He kept asking if you were sure and trying to distract you. 

It was suspicious behavior. Kaiba might not be on your suspect list, yet, but if he got away while the guard insisted on getting you a cup of coffee, you were not going to be amused. 

You were wondering how quickly you could put out an alert for Seto Kaiba when the guard suddenly shouted, “Boss!” and bowed. 

You scanned the hallway, and your eyes landed on two men walking side-by-side in your direction. One of them had to be Seto Kaiba, but you weren’t sure which one. 

You should have had a picture of him sent to you. 

“Mr. Kaiba!” you called out. 

The brunet looked up, scanned you with his eyes, and turned back to his companion. His quick movement told you two things. One, he was Seto Kaiba. Two, he didn’t think that you were worth his time. 

Well, you would steal his time if you had to. Blocking off his path, you stood right in front of him and refused to let him walk away from you. You held up your badge and introduced yourself, placing careful emphasis on your title. “I have a few questions about the murder that took place this morning.” 

“Direct your questions to my lawyer. I don’t have time for an interrogation right now.” He tried to brush past you and almost succeeded, but you were used to men who tried pushing you around, and he wasn’t expecting you to use your body to block him so well. 

Now you had his attention, and it took a lot of effort to maintain eye contact with him. His eyes were a deep blue that didn’t seem to reflect anything. Like the ocean, the blue just seemed to go on and on. “I only have a few questions, Mr. Kaiba. I promise not to take up too much of your time.” 

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll give you ten minutes. The moment your time is up, you have to leave and direct any future inquiries to my lawyer.”

You simply nodded, unwilling to give him any solid agreement. 

Kaiba turned to the man he’d been walking with. “Take your break now. Meet me in my office in fifteen minutes.” Then Kaiba stepped around you and strode down the hallway. 

You just rolled your eyes and followed him. Men like him were a dime a dozen in the police force. He needed to feel like he was dominant and in control at all times. 

Well, you knew how to handle men like him. 

Or so you thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if it's sad that I have the killer and motives and all that planned out for this, but not the actual plot. I mean I have a general idea about where it goes but... 
> 
> Yeah, I really am not one of those heavy on the outline writers. I hope that doesn't bite me later on for this one. :) Enjoy!

Seto Kaiba took control of the situation by leading you into a conference room and sitting down at the head of the table. He left the room's door open for you to shut on your own and glanced down at his watch as if to say, "Your time starts now." 

You went ahead and shut the door but decided to remain standing. Of course, the blasted man was so tall that your head wasn't too much higher than his. You idly mused that today would have been a good day to wear heels.

For a moment, you simply stared at him, maintaining eye contact and trying figure out what sort of man he was. He stared back at you, perfectly comfortable in the silence. He wouldn't break and say anything anytime soon. You would have to start the conversation. "Mr. Kaiba, I'm here to talk to you about a man who was murdered on your property."

He simply raised an eyebrow at that.

"Now, what can you tell me about Frank Miller?"

"Nothing." Kaiba's eyebrow continued to mock you. "I have no idea who that is."

"He was a security guard in your employ, Mr. Kaiba. The one who was killed today." It was hard to maintain eye contact with Kaiba. His blue eyes were too empty. They revealed nothing yet seemed to be able to see through you at the same time. Kaiba was a difficult man to read. 

"I didn't hire him. While I'm in town, I use a private agency for my security. You should waste their time instead."

You pulled out your notebook, annoyed that this man seemed to be trying to be as useless as possible. "What's the name of the agency?"

He gave you the name. You wrote it down, and then he stood. "Wait a moment," you said, holding out a hand. "I'm not done with you."

He glanced down at his watch, and the motion was slow and deliberate. "Your time is up, detective. Whether you are done with me or not, my time is too valuable to waste here."

"If you'd like, I can drag you down to the station for questioning."

"Only if you have a reason to arrest me." He smirked. The arrogant ass had you cornered, and he knew it.

You decided to try a different approach. "Aren't you worried someone may be trying to kill you?"

Kaiba scoffed. "People are always  _ trying _ to kill me." 

You took in a deep breath and held it as he walked out of the room. You wanted to scream and wring his neck. Somehow, you managed to keep your temper contained as you stormed out of the building and sped back to the precinct. You hoped that you would have a reason to cuff up that jerk at some point. 

The first thing you did was check to make sure that Seb wasn't back yet, and you were surprised when you found him sitting at his desk. "Already done at the scene?" you asked.

He held up a USB. "They were nice enough to give us all of their security footage. I've been waiting for you."

"We have footage of the murder?" It couldn’t be that simple. You stared at Seb for a moment. "Damn it. I was hoping this one would be a bit harder." You grabbed your chair and dragged it over to Seb's desk. As you sat down next to him, you noticed that he was staring at you. "What?!"

"What did you do with my partner?"

You simply rolled your eyes him. "Maybe I just want a challenge?"

"Ha. Right." He forced out a chuckle. "You like to close cases in twenty-four hours or less."

"Which you keep reminding me isn't realistic," you grumbled. "Whatever. Let's just watch the footage."

"There's a few different cameras." Sebastian popped the USB into the computer and loaded the videos. "Want to start with the camera on the front gate?" You nodded, and he clicked on that video. Then he moved forward to about half an hour before the power outage.

Both of you watched as absolutely nothing happened. A few cars drove down the street without slowing down or stopping, and nobody walked by. Nothing happened until 1:46am when a car pulled up to the front gate. One of the guards left the station and walked up to the car's open window. The front window was tinted, so it was hard to tell who was in the car. 

"The reports say that's Seto Kaiba coming home," Sebastian offered.

Both of your eyebrows shot up. "This late at night? And so close to the outage? Anyone with him?"

"Just his driver, but other than that, he was alone."

Once the car pulled in through the gates, that was the last sign of activity until the camera suddenly went black a little over ten minutes later. It flickered back into life a moment later, but you knew that the brief jump would have been the power outage. “Damn! I completely forgot. The cameras can’t work without power.” You growled at yourself for not realizing it sooner.

“Don’t worry. The security team said that the cameras are powered by the backup generator.” Seb paused the feed and wrote down the timestamp. Then he rewound and wrote down the timestamp just before the camera went out. There was a four minute difference. 

By the time the camera came back on, only one guard remained at the front, the other guard, your victim, was already heading over to the generator to try to get power running again. The two of you continued to watch that video footage for a while longer, but nothing else happened on it, and nobody tried to get in or out using that main gate. 

As Sebastian tried to figure out which camera was closest to the power supply, you decided to bring up something that was bothering you. “Don’t you think that it’s weird that Seto Kaiba got home shortly before the murder?”

“I think it was planned.” Seb paused the video so he could look over at you. “The murderer wanted to send a message to Kaiba.” 

You nodded. You were thinking exactly the same thing. Killing someone’s guard seemed like it should be some sort of warning, but the position of the body contradicted that. “The body was in a reverential position… kind of like how you’d kneel before a king or something.” 

“But was the guard a sacrifice or was he intended to be a stand in for the killer? Or could that position simply be the killer mocking Mr. Kaiba? And if the guard is supposed to be some sort of offering, why kill an employee?”

“Convenience?” you suggested. Your eyes drifted over to the computer, and you pointed at one of the files. “Do you think the footage at the front door will actually have anything?” 

“Only if our killer really is that stupid.” 

“When are they ever?” You sighed. Most of the time, people weren’t stupid enough to get caught on camera. Still, they were that dumb often enough that you held out hope that the camera would have caught something. The killer may not have been aware of the camera.

The footage of the front door was even less eventful than the front gate. Nobody went by, and nothing happened. There was a moth that seemed extremely interested in the light near the camera, but the flutter of that moth’s wings was the only movement until the camera caught Kaiba’s car driving down the driveway. The car passed out of view quickly, and nothing else happened. Then the camera turned off. 

You were hopeful, but when the camera turned back on, the body was already positioned on the front driveway. “How is that even possible?! The camera was only off for four minutes!”

“It should have been off for four minutes.” Sebastian had paused the camera. Now he tapped the bottom of the screen with his pen. “Look at that timestamp. This camera was off for longer than the other one.” He wrote down the time before rewinding the camera back to before it went off. His brow furrowed, and he hummed, looking down at his notes.

“What?” you demanded, wanting to know what he’d noticed. 

“This camera went off before the other one.” 

“That’s weird… right?” Security systems were not your area of expertise, so you weren’t sure if this wasn’t making sense simply because you didn’t understand it properly. 

“Yeah. They all should have gone off and come back on at the same time.” He wrote down something. “Maybe someone will be able to tell us why this one went off sooner, but first…” He closed that camera and starting playing the footage from another camera. 

The camera turned out to be attached to a random hallway. Sebastian clicked ahead, almost to the point where the camera was supposed to turn off, and the two of you watched as Kaiba walked into a room attached to the hallway. 

“Well, damn. The asshole has an alibi,” you muttered as the camera flickered off. 

“I take it your meeting with him went well,” Seb commented as he wrote down the timestamps and compared them. 

“He’s refusing to talk. Said he had nothing to say.” 

“It’s probably true. Men like Kaiba don’t pay attention to their hired help.” He stood, gathering his notepad. “I’m going to ask someone to take a look at these cameras and see if we can figure out why the one at the front door went off earlier.”

You waved him off, pushing your chair back to your desk. “I’ll just take a look at all of the statements we gathered at the scene. Maybe someone had more to say than Kaiba.” There were a few statements that you hadn’t been present for, but you doubted anyone had anything substantial to say. Until you managed to contact a family member, you probably wouldn’t know anything about the victim. 

His driver’s license said he was thirty-two. He’d been working as a security guard for years, but he’d only been with his current employer for a few months. Before this job, he’d worked as a bouncer at a club, but he’d been fired for handling the wrong person too roughly. 

“Take a look at this.” A pile of papers were dropped onto your desk. You looked up to see one of your researchers grinning at you. “We just got his financials.”

You put aside your current document and picked up the papers. You scanned them but nothing stuck out at first. Then your eyes zeroed in on a recent deposit. 

“Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.” It was a shame you couldn’t ask the victim why it had been transferred to his account, but you did know one other person who could answer that question. “Who transferred it?” 

The researcher, Allie, grinned. “Richard McArthur. He works at the same company that Frank Miller worked at. It looks like he's in charge of giving out guard assignments. And guess what? This isn’t the first time he’s transferred a sum that big over to our vic. The victim's records show a similar transfer two months ago.” 

Your eyes went wide. “That’s a lot of money. Have you pulled his financials yet?” 

Allie shook her head. “Not yet, but I can have it for you soon.” 

“Good. Meanwhile, let’s dig up as much information as we can about Richard McArthur. I think Sebastian and I may have to pay him a visit.”


End file.
